English modal auxiliary verbs

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v t e

Look up Appendix:English modal verbs in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

The English modal auxiliary verbs are a subset of the English auxiliary verbs used mostly to express modality, properties such as possibility and obligation.^[a] They can most easily be distinguished from other verbs by their defectiveness (they do not have participles or plain forms^[b]) and by their lack of the ending ‑(e)s for the third-person singular.^[3]

The central English modal auxiliary verbs are can (with could), may (with might), shall (with should), will (with would), and must. A few other verbs are usually also classed as modals: ought, and (in certain uses) dare, and need. Use (/jus/, rhyming with "loose") is included as well. Other expressions, notably had better, share some of their characteristics.

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